FWDLabs

Finndle.com - Toward a Cyberspace White Pages

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 20:51:00 +0000

The lack of a comprehensive source for contact information represents a drag on commerce and a significant obstacle to communication. The burden of finding and managing contact information weighs against adoption of new communication offers. Finndle.com applies crowd sourcing to create a white pages for Cyberspace. The web app combines guestbook functionality with a mechanism for obtaining introductions and exchanging contacts. Finndle provides websites something like the networking function of a meeting sign-in sheet - an Online Digits Exchange.

Telephone white pages served as the social networking tool of choice before the Internet, but the utility of white pages declined as communication moved to mobile phones and the Internet. The web provides advertisers with options that go beyond traditional yellow pages, but telephone white pages remain the primary source of contact information for the communicating public. Finndle seeks to create a cyberspace white pages by making social networking a feature of websites rather than just a function of sites like Facebook and MySpace.

Traditional telephone directories were possible because telephone companies controlled telephone numbers and forced the publication of listings on an opt-out basis. The element of coercion disappears in the case of the web, so Finndle offers users control over their listing and privacy as an incentive to opt-in to a global directory. Finndle uses the fact a website's audience reflects the content. Finndle treats websites as the cyberspace equivalent of towns in the case of traditional directories.

The Finndle home page aggregates the resulting guestbooks under a search interface. As participation grows, guestbooks develop into local directories and collectively yield a white pages for cyberspace. Listings can include any form of communication or links pointing to profiles created via social networks. Finndle also provides a means for users to create a "SocialID" alias that points to their listing via the Finndle search interface or as a URL of the form www.finndle.com/socialid.

The SocialID reduces the burden of managing multiple communication devices and coordinates. It reduces the leverage service providers obtain from controlling telephone numbers and screen names. Distributing the Finndle SocialID avoids the need to share physical telephone numbers or actual email addresses that tend to change over time. Users can also create different listings and SocialID's for different contexts or even on an adhoc basis for "tonight's party".

Finndle gives websites operators a mechanism to engage and better understand the nature of their audience. The listings (i.e. guestbook signers) form a local directory of the most enthusiastic segment of a website's audience. There exist opportunities to create special offers to incent people to participate and take advantage of the feedback they can provide. Website operators can create subdirectories for various contexts (e.g. events or specific pages) and private invitation only directories. All resulting registrations and listings remain under the control of the host website.

Africa the Last Infotech Frontier

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 10:17:00 +0000

See pictures from trip to Ghana, Africa here

A recent two week visit to Ghana, Africa offered scenes frozen in time from the moment of the country's independence in 1957 and even from the period before European powers arrived circa 1500. Most of the buildings and infrastructure date to the 1950's before seven military coups over thirty years made investment impossible. Open sewers remain the norm and modern paved roads the exception. The use of English as the official language traces to the colonial period, but an intricate system of village chiefs controlling local government and ownership of land traces to the period before the arrival of European powers. Yet, Ghana like a number of other countries in Africa generates among the highest mobile phone growth rates on Earth.

Ghanaian's have access to very nearly the same devices, features, and pricing as people in Europe or the USA a mere eight years after mobile phones first arrived. The timing coincides with the relative stability of Ghana after democratic elections in 1999. The success of mobile phone companies illustrates the opportunity a stable Africa presents for the larger infotech and communication industries. Vodafone acquired the state owned telco incumbent Ghana Telecom for $900mn in August 2008. The deal along with promised $500mn investments in fiber infrastructure represents a fresh start for Ghana. Government leaders understand keenly continued stability means investments in support of a jump to middle income and, eventually, first world status.

The government of Ghana has an explicit plan to move away from merely providing raw materials and toward a knowledge economy. Information, communication, and technology (ICT) projects already represent among the highest priorities for government and aid organizations, but there remains significant work to do in attracting attention to commercial sector opportunities. The 850 million people distributed across the 53 countries in Africa represent 11% of world population. The opportunity for economic growth remains tremendous with consumption of consumer goods, electricity usage, and per capita income a mere 5% of the levels in developed countries.

The 500 year track record of trade and conquest in Africa was shaped by the desire to extract the resources sought by more developed countries. Sustaining a knowledge economy requires precisely the opposite strategy where advantage depends on avoiding war and working to help move Africa toward full participation in the global economy. A successful transition to a knowledge economy can make Africa a sustainable economic engine for the entire planet. Ghana represents a greenfield opportunity relative to investments flowing toward China and India. The nature of Africa as a cash economy leaves the continent relatively untouched by the credit market turmoil in the developed world.

Africa deserves a fresh look, but investments still require a plan incorporating the realities of history. While the people of Ghana covet education as the key to upward mobility, this mobility frequently means the elite leave the country in search of opportunity. Any renaissance in Ghana needs to include convincing Ghanians to stay. There exist very few large employers in the country, so 75% of the population depends on self employment. Boot strapping Ghana's knowledge economy will need to start with external demand, but the country's potential as a gateway to Africa should create the demand for information technology in financial, health care, industrial, transportation, and government sectors.

Companies and entrepreneurs interested in participating in a renaissance of Africa also need to negotiate a number of risks and build first world amenities from scratch. Travel to Ghana includes a mandatory Yellow Fever vaccination and precautions regarding the risk of contracting Malaria. Relatively poor sanitation infrastructure means applying significant caution to avoid health problems arising from unsafe food and water. A Chinese company went so far as to import all the food, water, and workers necessary to complete the construction of a stadium in the country, but the main issue is controlling the conditions of food preparation. Inadequate capacity and unpaved roads make travel in and out of and between cities arduous. Outages make backup power a requirement for deployment of information processing and communication equipment.

Six competing mobile phone companies make communication an important exception to the list of infrastructure deficits. Broadband penetration remains less than 2%, but competing fiber builds connecting the country's cell towers promise cheap and ubiquitous wireless broadband. Enterprising Ghanians already talk about the country's potential to become Africa's "Silicon Valley". The parallels between Ghana and California look rather substantial in terms of population size, natural resources, and coastal location. The direct economic comparisons may only fit with California in the mid 1800's, but the rapid spread of mobile phone technologies suggest it will not take 150 years for Ghana to catch up.

Calling Circles

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:01:00 +0000

FWD outlined instructions for creating Calling Circles on the FWDWiki. A Calling Circle offers the telecom equivalent of social networking friend lists. It is a directory of friends accessible via FWD. The elimination of usage based communication charges associated with services like FWD gives communication with friends a different character. The wait continues for cool new communication applications, but Free World Dialup members already enjoy global termination of calls as with any Internet application. The technical setup obstacles remain significant, but any FWD member can talk with any other FWD member anywhere in the world for as long as they want for no cost beyond the $30 membership fee. This opens up the possibility for a different type of communication experience even as the process of dialing numbers and dependence on a familiar looking telephones remains unchanged.

Return on Infrastructure Investment

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:50:00 +0000

There remains a large gap in perception regarding the value of communication infrastructure investment versus transportation infrastructure. Everyone gets the tremedous RoI achieved by public sector infrastructure projects associated with highways and airports, but communication infrastructure gets left to private entities intent on leveraging scarcity to preserve prices. The telco business model is anti-investment. The policy debates always revolve around this issue of investment where telco's argue they need some policy result in order to have incentive to invest. They win the policy result and subsequently fail to invest. Capital investment as a function of revenues remains very low. Most of the telcos invest less than they report in depreciation. The US government subsidizes billions worth of noise suppression barrier walls around highways across the country and zero in communcation infrastructure. It's not clear how to recreate the conditions that led to the interstate highway system initiated during the Eisenhower administration, but until the US obtains an equivalent conviction regarding connectivity the country will fall further and further behind in the global economy.

ICED

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:41:00 +0000

The mnemonic ICED stands for independent developers, connectivity, emerging markets, and devices. It serves as a filter to help in navigating toward the areas generating the most opportunities. More and more companies are deciding that they can't afford to employ the number of developers necessary to maintain the pace of innovation. Plan B calls for creating open platforms that attract interest from independent developers. The trend likely originated from the terrific productivity and innovation generated by the open source movement. The opportunity for independent developers will grow as will the competition for their attention. Google, Apple, and Nokia compete for the attention of independent developers regarding their mobile platforms. AOL created dev.aol.com and opened up all their products as the means to traffic growing innovations. Connectivity represents the primary bottleneck/driver for infocom innovation in the same way processing power drives the infotech industry. All the inputs necessary for cool new products improve in price performance at a rapid clip except for connectivity. Emerging markets and the 3 billion people without access to communication represent a far more interesting market that trying to sell someone in the developed world a second mobile phone. Devices connected to the Internet represent an entirely greenfield opportunity. The easy of use obstacles preventing the SIP VoIP device from growing mainstream will get solved.

Paid versus Free

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:03:00 +0000

Free World Dialup's journey from free to paid membership created a lot of criticism along with plenty of snarky comments about changing the name. Time will tell whether the move represents a stroke of genius or blunder. The fact few people see the stroke of genius part makes the experiment all the more interesting. All Internet startups need to navigate the paid versus free decision. The following lists a few of the categories where paid represents the right answer. In any case, the knee jerk assumption everything on the Internet needs to be free deserves some scrutiny.

1. Services that require reliability are usually paid: The issue here is enabling something more valuable than the price of the service. Lawyers do not jump on every cheap long distance offer. People continueto hold onto wireline phone service to preserve reliable access to E911.

2. Services that require accuracy are usually paid: LSSI sells 6mo old data at 10% of the cost of accurate up to date data.

3. Proprietary services are usually paid: The proprietary database services like Choicepoint charge on a per lookup basis to provide background on individuals. Choicepoint acquired 50 companies over five years to corner the market on these proprietary databases.

4. Customer acquisition costs are paid: The entire advertising industry exists as a mechanism for customer acquisition. ROI calculations make paying for customer acquisition an easy decision.

5. Monitoring services are usually paid: Nobody monitors home alarms for free. People can opt-out of monitoring, but peace of mind with cost.

6. Services requiring customer service are usually paid: Customer service is simply too expensive to provide for free.

7. Services requiring continuous improvement are usually paid: Free service offers tend to be relatively static given the lack of incentive/ability to invest.

8. Non-optional services are usually paid: Finding an ISP to connect your computer to the Internet is not optional. The free ISP's did not survive.

FWD paid membership makes sense in the context of just about all of these dimensions.

Infocom Ecosystem

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:42:00 +0000

FWD seeks to participate in a communication ecosystem entirely distinct from the one associated with traditional vertically integrated telecom. Infocom ecosystem companies specialize at a particular layer of the value chain (e.g. horizontal integration.) Communication solutions arise from a value chain that includes chip mfrs, device mfrs, software platform providers, application providers, and service providers. The chip and device mfrs determine the media types available for communication. Platform and application providers determine the particular form of communication. Service providers provide enabling services (things end users cannot do for themselves.) Service providers dominate the traditional telecom landscape, but service providers in infocom offer enabling services around the edges (e.g. SIP registration). End users contribute the content in both cases, but the options available to end users in infocom go well beyond those in telecom. The telecom ecosystem offers one pricing model, one level of reliability, one level of voice quality, etc etc. The offers of one telephone company are indistinguishable from the offers of others and do not change over time. The underlying elements associated with infocom communications improve in a manner analogous to Moore's Law in infotech. The net result should allow the infocom ecosystem to develop in an entirely different direction than telecom.

Dependence on telephone numbers killing growth

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:15:00 +0000

It does not seem a stretch to argue the world wide web would not have gained juggernaut status if navigation required "dialing" IP addresses. The inability of VoIP to move beyond telephone numbers represents a key a source of friction. There simply exist too many numbers to remember. Telephone numbers presume devices with keypads. They make it impossible to guess a number as can easily happen in the case of website URL's. The search process regarding telephone numbers is cumbersome relative to search services available for the web. No one carries around an address book of websites. People do carry around the cell phones to avoid the need of remembering telephone numbers, but these lists remain tied to the device (and disappear if the device fails.)

Audience size drives value, not control

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:30:00 +0000

The failure of IM platforms to find a solution to interoperability follows a decision to value control over audience size. The underwhelming end user adoption and ability to monetize these platforms follows directly. A few steps to interoperability exist, but progress leaves end users far short of being able to easily message anyone on any platform. Email remains vastly more popular the IM even though it may represent an inferior communication tool. The same dynamic plays out in the lack of interest connecting VoIP networks. There exist peering solutions, but the telephone network remains the interoperability mechanism of choice. This gets reflected in weak adoption of VoIP. A fully interconnected VoIP ecosystem would follow the example of the web where audience attracted content and content attracted audience in a virtuous cycle. The disconnected audience reality of the present destroys the virtuous cycle and everyone loses.

Skype needs to open up

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:29:00 +0000

The 12 million people connected to Skype (as self reported) represents a decent number of people or almost nothing depending on how you look at it. It is a good size audience for any application, but it remains trivial relative to the number of people in the world. Imagine if the web browser (Skype is really just a communication browser) launched in 1991 without an ability to support 3rd party applications? There would be no world wide web as we know it today. The prospect for world wide communication requires a similar development that Skype is missing an opportunity to enable. FWD seeks to enable a world wide web like phenomena by preserving geography and usage independent communication. Anyone with an open standard SIP device can interconnect with FWD just as anyone with a TCP protocol stack enabled PC can attach to the Internet. We are working on an easy mechanism for 3rd parties to deploy applications accessible to FWD connected devices. VoIP remains a mere onramp to the telephone network today, but we believe there exists a promise of much more in enabling a new communication ecosystem.

More on SIP Internet not equal TCP Internet

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 17:43:00 +0000

The "Internet" as a phenomena presently means interconnecting computers. End users use computers to access the Internet and providers deliver content/applications via platforms based on computers. The adoption of cell phones as mobile platforms for accessing the Internet largely emulates the fixed broadband experience.

Virtually all of the traffic on the Internet revolves around file transfers enabled by the TCP part of TCP/IP. Session initiation protocol (SIP) enables functionality entirely distinct from the file transfer process associated with TCP. The "sessions" set up between two devices allow the real-time transfer of content (e.g. voice or video or anything else).

The exploration of applications of the Internet made possible by TCP has covered significant terrain since the web browser arrived in 1991. The exploration of applications made possible by SIP have barely begun, but we are already thwarted by the dependence on using devices (i.e. computers) optimized for TCP. Things get a lot more interesting as the number of SIP based communication devices attached to the Internet grows.

There exist a decent number of SIP devices in circulation (TI reports shipping 450mn ports over 5 years), but almost all the devices remain behind a PBX in an enterprise environment or locked to a single service provider as in the case of Vonage. Creating a scenario where all SIP devices can address each other directly via the Internet would make things a lot more interesting. It would provide a base of devices sufficient to motivate 3rd parties to create new applications.

Times Up for Minutes

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 18:11:00 +0000

Renting communication infrastructure (i.e. selling minutes of use) generates a total of $500 billion in revenue for the regional telecom incumbents AT&T, Verizon, NTT, Telefonica, France Telecom, and Deutsche Telekom. Building global computing infrastructure generates similarly large numbers for infotech companies, but telecom and infotech operate at opposite ends of the rent versus buy spectrum. End users tend to pay usage (i.e. rental) fees for communication and own their computing infrastructure. The differences between rent and buy transactions account for much of the difference between the two industries.

The dominance of rental transactions in telecom represents an anomaly, because people prefer ownership over renting in most circumstances. Two times the number of people buy rather than lease homes and automobiles. DVD sales exceed rental revenues by a similar ratio. Taxis represent an efficient solution for transportation, but nearly everyone purchases a car and leaves it idle in their driveway most of the time. Purchases are motivated by an effort to maximize options. Renting arises as a last resort where there exists no other option. The difficulty of owning a automobile in New York City leaves many residents dependent on taxis. Owning usually cost less than renting over the long term, but people frequently can not afford to buy.

The adversarial nature of the landlord tenant relationship explains a lot about the behavior of telephone companies. The pursuit of profit demands maximizing rent and minimizing expenses. Landlords and telco's do not invest except where there exists a competitive imperative. Landlords and telco's neglect basic maintenance until tenants complain vigorously or threaten to leave. Landlords and telco's require contracts and create other obstacles making it difficult for tenants to move to another provider. In the case purchase transactions and infotech, creating demand for new products requires an R&D investment sufficient to make earlier products obsolete and deliver better value than competing offers.

The telcos work very hard to preserve a (non)competitive environment allowing them to rent the same product to all customers. The average teenager gets the same voice quality and reliability as the CEO of IBM. The variety of cell phones owes to the fact end users purchase the handset. The strategy offers economies of scale that maximize operating margins, but it weighs heavily against the demand necessary to sustain growth. End users limited to a rental transaction and a single service option seek to meet no more than basic needs. Demand for infotech products can go significantly beyond basic needs given the value of having a reserve against future and unexpected needs or simply a prestige factor.

Most infotech companies miss the artificial nature of the communication rental status quo and presume telecom incumbents as their only channel to end users. Applying marketing and R&D resources to address pent up demand for end user ownership of communication infrastructure represents a better strategy the emerging infocom industry. The collective resources of the infotech industry would go a long way toward overcoming obstacles to community based wireless and fiber deployments. Cisco might look to enable functionality that makes a Linksys VoIP handset interesting on its own in terms of applications and content without a connection to the telephone network.

The loss of policy battles in the 1980's prevent AT&T from keeping end users in rental mode for telephones and inside wiring. The Internet provides new ownership options for end users as VoIP does not depend on the elaborate switching and database infrastructure otherwise known as the telephone network. A generic Internet connection and SIP registration provide a mechanism to connect any two VoIP devices anywhere in the world. The way forward requires building new communication ecosystem as there exists little prospect for improvement in the landlord tenant relationship.

Can VoIP survive without the telephone network?

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:23:00 +0000

Free World Dialup's move to paid membership and decision to avoid dependence on the telephone network left some people wondering whether we were foresaking oxygen in the air we breathe. The reaction illustrates the reason for the move, in that more than a decade into the "revolution", VoIP remains little more than an access mechanism for the telephone network. Some VoIP applications do not bother with revenue, but, otherwise, they all pursue a revenue model based on charging for access to the telephone network. The question remains whether VoIP can survive without the telephone network.

The possibility of non-telephone network applications seems most likely in the area of entertainment related applications and content. The number of end points and network effect makes the telephone network unbeatable for "telephone calls". However, the telephone call does not exhaust all forms of communication and existing communication does not exhaust all demand. VoIP does not even need to displace the existing uses of the telephone network. The applications of the telephone network exist in the context of per minute charges, dialing telephone numbers, and relatively low quality audio (relative to face to face communication). Changing one or more of these dimensions changes the types of possible applications.

VoIP will find traction in areas of communication not already served via other means. FWD's decision to avoid any connection with the telephone network allows us to eliminate usage and geography based charges and restore an true Internet like experience to VoIP. The world wide web offered very little in 1991 except global termination. The relatively modest early content attracted additional audience and the additional audience attracted more content. The elimination of usage based charges really got things going and the same process can play out with VoIP.

Open standard SIP based VoIP offers the same promise as TCP based web browsing. The entire world wide web emerges from the file transfer mechanism enabled by TCP. SIP offers a mechanism to create real-time communication "sessions". Applying the creative energies of people toward utilizing sessions will produce an entirely different communication ecosystem. This build-it-and-they-will-come-argument remains unsatisfying for many people, but there exist no alternative. We really don't know any more about the future applications of VoIP than we knew about any of the other applications of the Internet that emerged over the years. The paid membership model allows FWD to put action to our conviction.

Testing membership based VoIP business model

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 18:39:00 +0000

Everything seems obvious in hindsight as, for example, in the case of the business model pioneered by Vonage in 2001. I can report navigating toward the business model during 2000 it was not at all obvious what would work. The previous successful VoIP businesses were all straight per minute plays and primarily in the International LD world. No one was sure exactly what business model might work to break into the domestic telecom business. The basic architecture of the network or end user offer were unknown. FWD's effort to test a paid membership model gets into similarly uncharted territory. The $30 price point was set at 10% of the basic Vonage offer, although FWD and Vonage offer very different value propositions for users. FWD will put as much communication value into the $30 bucket as possible, but the approach holds as sacred elimination of usage based charges and retaining global flat rate connectivity. We are looking to enable new forms and context for communication rather than simply cheaper forms of the same old thing. The fact the process starts with a thin story does not mean it fails. It is not obvious today why anyone ever purchased a 286 based computer in 1988. No Internet connectivity. No RAM or storage. The thing was little more than an oversized paper weight. However, it had characteristics that allowed continuous improvement and 3rd party application development. The membership based FWD seeks to enable the same dynamics.

Beyond minutes based busines models

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:56:00 +0000

There exist maybe 50 companies with Skype and Vonage at the head of the pack that grew into significant enterprises based on VoIP technology. All the 50 companies ended up with a business model based on connecting people to the telephone network, hence none of the companies really offered an Internet like communication experience independent of geography and usage fees. Skype to Skype calls take advantage of the Internet, but Skype's dependence on the SkypeOUT telephone revenues keep the company tied to the telephone network. This means the world of VoIP entirely lacks the two things that drove the growth of the world wide web in zero incremental cost global termination and navigation via hyperlinks. Touching the telephone network means usage based charges and telephone numbers. The revenue and growth problems suffered by Skype and Vonage seem like symptoms of the deadend telco myopia shared by the entire VoIP industry.

Telephone calls address only a narrow slice of communication demand

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:49:00 +0000

Very few people seem to appreciate the idea that telephone calls do not address all potential communication demand. This represents an example of the "moth phenomena" where the moth can't resist the flying around the brightest light even if they end up starving to death in the process. The average entrepreneur interested in a communication application can't help but attempt a play for a cut of the trillion or so telecom revenues floating around. This leaves the world stuck in horseless carriage mode, ends badly for a lot of entrepreneurs, and fails to improve the available communication options.

Framing the challenge as one of creating the Communication ISP equivalent to the existing Information ISP's represents an attempt to break the telecom myopia. SIP provides for VoIP the same utility as TCP provides for the file transfers associated with the world wide web. The number of elements that make all the functionality associated with the www have expanded rapidly over the years. A similar development process needs to take place regarding the real-time sessions enabled by SIP. The success of VoIP requires a specialist ISP focused on enabling communication functionality.

The limitations of traditional telephone service in terms of audio quality, user interface, and cost shape the types of useful applications. VoIP solutions offering enhanced audio quality, a different user interface, and global flat rate termination will lead to different applications. These new applications can get driven by the virtuous circle of content attracting audience and audience attracting content. These points all admittedly fall into the category of theory and the task of proving the theory still has a ways to go before anyone claims victory.

Communication ISP Manifesto

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 21:36:00 +0000

Restricting VoIP to the task of traditional telephone calls is like viewing television as a platform for delivering AM radio. The promise of VoIP in connecting communication devices via the Internet represents a much better fit with the ISP model - a Communication ISP. The Communication ISP preserves global flat rate termination and click-to-connect functionality required to take full advantage of Internet connectivity. The Communication ISP asserts no constraints on the type of connected devices, applications, or content. Communication ISP connected devices offer a blank sheet of paper for end users to express their communication creativity in a manner directly analogous to traditional Information ISP's in enabling navigation of the world wide web.

Interconnection with the telephone network shuts out the possibility of creativity. Everyone already knows the essential features of a telephone. The telephone network determines the nature of the application. Content is limited to those uses justified in the context of the per minute cost of telephone service. The essential offer of a Communication ISP as with existing Information ISP's is making a device addressable via the Internet. A communication device connected to the Internet need not have a telephone number or key pad at all. Addressing can be accomplished via a domain name in the same manner as any other device directly connected to the Internet.

Texas Instruments reports having shipped 450 million VoIP ports in recent years, but almost all the resulting devices connect to the telephone network rather than each other via the Internet. Communication ISP's recognize the compelling value of connecting any two VoIP devices anywhere in the world via the Internet without a per minute usage fee. Rather than depend on telephone network as the means to achieve critical mass, the Communication ISP leverages the virtuous cycle of content attracting audience and audience attracting content that drove the rapid expansion of the world web web.

The telephone did not merely represent a more efficient telegraph and VoIP does not merely enable more efficient telephone service. The measure of success for VoIP and the Communication ISP is the extent of incremental new communication enabled. Companies and individuals can leverage connected communication devices as the means to invent entirely new categories of communication. Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) offers for real-time communication the same frictionless mechanism that Transport Control Protocol (TCP) offered for the file transfers associated with the sharing of information. The open platform for development associated with the Internet promises a steady stream of new applications and explosive growth in available content.